The Duke’s Eldest Son Escaped to the Military

The Duke’s Eldest Son Escaped to the Military (127)

Translator: ChubbyCheeks

44 World Tree’s Test (1)

After many sacrifices, Iron finally reached his destination. The purification of the contaminated spring water had started with the enormous holy power coursing through his body. However, the pollution had already progressed for a long time so it could not be purified instantly. Even though he had fainted right away, the purification was still ongoing thanks to the holy power that continuously emerged from his body.

However, contaminated energy still ran rampant above the tree. But perhaps it was because of the holy power? The tree, which was gradually returning to its original color, began to press on the dimensional gate and made it shrink.

The red tentacles that were wrapped and wound around the tree immediately let go of the tree and clung to the gate to move it elsewhere the moment the tree began to fill in the crack. It was as if the tree did not want to allow the gate to stick to its body anymore.

While the tree and the gate fought, the users who were focused solely on hunting the dark elves heard a string of notifications.

― The Main Quest World Tree’s Test has begun. This quest is linked to The North’s Final War.

― The black tree (World Tree’s root) is currently being purified. Protect the black tree until it is completely purified. 

― This quest is the most important condition for winning The North’s Final War.

The users hesitated for a bit before raising their weapons high and joining the Northern Coalition’s frontlines.

Since the users, who were only focused on hunting the dark elves outside of the forest, joined the war, victory gradually tilted towards the Northern Coalition’s side.

But the problem was the black tree. 

The Iron Wall Division and the rangers, who arrived just a step later, had begun their attack on the elves. The elves started to retreat the moment the troops arrived and fought against them.

The troops immediately helped the injured men that came out from inside the elves’ defense line. It was surprising that they were fighting against the normal elves, not the dark elves, but they found it even more surprising to find the majority of their famous knights were lying dead or were seriously injured on the ground. 

“Cassim!” 

The bloody Knight Order Commander, Cassim, fainted when he saw the Iron Wall Division’s commander. The soldiers immediately helped the other knights as they collapsed one by one. It was as if they had finally reached the end of the limits of their mental and physical states but they only let go after seeing them. 

“Follow me!” 

“Yes, sir!” 

As they laid down Cassim, who had received first aid, and advanced forward, they were able to see the Ghosts who fought until the very end. 

“Keok! Kgghhk!” 

“Are you alright? Drink this first.” 

Valios, the Iron Wall Division Commander, hurriedly rushed and helped Carl Gustav when he saw him vomit blood and lose grip on his sword. He immediately took out a potion and poured it into Carl’s mouth before pouring the rest over his grave injuries. However, his injuries were so severe that the healing power of the potion couldn’t solve it completely. 

“In… inside… Lieutenant Colonel Iron… is… inside…” 

“I understand. You don’t need to speak anymore.” 

Valios looked around as he said so. 

Although he came as fast as he could, many of the Northeastern Knights had already died. Even their commander, Cassim, was seriously injured and had already fallen unconscious.

They could see the Ghosts lying on the ground as they rushed to the black tree after giving first aid to the surviving and heavily injured men. Most of the Ghosts, who had survived countless crises, were now dead. The only ones to survive were Carl Gustav, Billie Brandt and Lintel Verner, those who fought until the bitter end. 

“The… there’s someone alive here!” 

Valios nodded heavily as he hurriedly checked the face of the person after hearing the soldier’s cry.

“Is this Milton?” 

Valios nodded again. He knew this face very well.

There was only one more Ghost who survived. Considering that they were the Northeast’s best of the best, having more than half of them die like that was an extremely painful loss.

That went to show just how difficult the battle was. Perhaps there were even more deaths in the Northern Army than in the Northeastern Army. 

“It would have been nice if all of them had lived and only had severe injuries…” 

Valios sighed. He knew that he was just being greedy. 

He saved the surviving Ghosts with minimal first aid before hurriedly entering the tree at Carl’s urging.

He could see traces of a fierce battle the further he went inside the tree. But he couldn’t find anyone. 

“Hmm… I think Lieutenant Colonel Iron had won but…” 

Based on the scars that the sword had left behind, he could tell that Iron had won. However, there was nothing here except for the blood stains that were left on the walls of the tree. Valios hurriedly followed the traces and went deeper inside.

At one point, he felt the tremendous holy power that formed a barrier which prevented him from moving further inside. He wanted to force it open but when he thought that it must be Iron’s power, he stopped acting and just squinted to look inside the barrier.

There inside, was Iron, who had fainted, with his sword dipped in the spring water. After realizing that he could not break through the barrier, Valios went outside again and shouted to his troops. 

“We’re turning this place into our stronghold! Get ready!” 

“Yes, sir!” 

He ordered his troops in the Iron Wall Division to fortify the defenses and turn this place into a stronghold while calling for the other troops. 

Medic units quickly set up tents as troops arrived one after the other arrived and gathered to create facilities for the injured. 

The battle continued. But, when the troops successfully broke through the elves and the dark elves from inside their defense line, their enemies began to flee to the forest one by one.

Since their defense line had been broken through, they now risked an immediate annihilation if they stayed here and got attacked from both sides. That was the reason why they retreated to the forest. After all, the Northern Forest was still contaminated, and would remain as the dark elves’ realm. Even the elves, who retreated from the black tree, also hid in the forest and waited for another opportunity. 

“The war is not yet over!” 

The Ranger Division Commander Davin Archer shouted as he tried to soothe and raise the morale of the soldiers. 

Meanwhile, Sky Renz, who led the Drake Unit, brought supplies to build their camp around the black tree.

They had reached their target, the black tree, but the war was not yet over. This was because the other-worlders, who arrived one after the other, informed them of the quest that they received as the users of the God Game.

“Protect the black tree!” 

Upon hearing the content of the quest, the officers hurriedly informed the army and all of the troops began to gather around the black tree. 

Now that the dark elves and the elves had retreated into the contaminated forest, all the troops that entered the forest joined the formation and gathered around the black tree.

The masters also gathered in the black tree as the beings that the dark elves had summoned disappeared into the forest. 

“The Ghosts…” 

Crimson couldn’t speak when he identified the bodies of the Ghosts. All he did was cry as he identified them one by one. Majority of the Ghosts, who had survived many difficult battles, had died in this place. Even the knight order had a lot of deaths. He couldn’t help but sigh and lament their loss.

And this loss was not only happening in the Northeast. 

More than half of the North’s Knight Order directly under Command had collapsed. Even their special operation unit had recorded casualties that were more than half of their numbers.

The Lion Family also lost half of its Blood Lions while many of its Silver Lions and Steel Lions had also lost their lives. 

Even the territorial forces had lost a number of their knights and wizards.

This made it hard for all of them to rebuild their forces. Perhaps they would need at least a decade of hard work to rebuild their forces once again. 

However, despite their huge losses, the battle still had not yet ended. 

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The dark elves invaded once again the moment the darkness of the night fell. And with this the battle over the black tree had begun once again. This time, it was the human army who was defending. 

As more support came from the outside through the airships, they began to pressure the elven army while fighting against the dark elves and protecting the black tree. 

A fierce and bloody battle had started once again. The elves and the humans knew that this would be their final showdown so all of them fought fiercely against each other. 

“Everything will be over once we lose here! Stop them no matter what!”

“Come on!”

“You just have to hold on a bit longer!”

The elven alliance tried so hard to recapture the black tree while the humans tried to raise their morale and endure their attacks. 

Fortunately for the dark elves, the gate itself was not yet destroyed thanks to the efforts of the red tentacles. Thanks to the void energy that was still continuously being injected in their body, they were still able to continue this war. 

The black tree gradually recovered its original appearance as this war that neither side could easily finish continued on. The black fog also began to disappear which indicated the start of the Northern Forest’s recovery. Iron’s holy power and power of nature combined together and gradually purified the forest.

The dark elves began to get impatient when they saw that the forest and the black tree was gradually recovering. 

The root of the world tree is being cleansed?

How much time and effort did we spend to make this plan?

The plan that they had made at the risk of their corruption to get revenge on the humans was about to collapse. The human that had stopped them in Winter Mountain was also trying to break down their plans once again. Regardless, they were still on the verge of failure.

“We can’t stop it anymore.”

The head of the dark elves shed tears of blood as he stared at the world tree that was gradually being purified. 

Vicious humans.

He was furious that he couldn’t take his revenge on the Imperials that harassed them when all they did was live in peace. More than that, he felt deep hatred and anger at the fact that they would lose. 

“We’ll fight until the end.”

All of the dark elves nodded their heads at the words of the head of the dark elves. They had no other opportunity. They had made this plan while signing a contract with the void. So, all of them were determined to die the moment the plan failed. 

While the dark elves continued to fight the fierce battle against the humans, Iron’s consciousness, who had gradually purified the world tree, returned.

― So, you came back to your senses.

“You…”

A green fairy was sitting on a branch of the world tree and staring at Iron. However, he did not feel any powerful and fierce force coming from the fairy. Instead, he felt a pure and relaxing power, just like the power of nature that was always next to them. That was all that he could feel. When he looked closely at the fairy, he could see an enormous amount of this energy flowing in her body. 

“World Tree?”

― You’re quick on the uptake. 

The little fairy smiled upon hearing Iron’s words.

― I came here because one of my roots is being purified.

Iron looked at the World Tree silently as he listened to her words.

― You’re about to pass my test.

“Test…” 

He looked at World Tree as he recalled the words of the silver-haired elf. The small fairy smiled when she saw the question filling Iron’s eyes.

― I’m sure you’re curious about a lot of things but there’s not much I can tell you. There is a limit to what I can tell you since you didn’t really come to see me in person.

“Are you… forsaking the elves?” 

The fairy tilted her head at Iron’s question.

― I didn’t expect that you would ask me that. I thought that you would ask about the world… To answer that, it was their choice. And I’m just respecting their choice… Since they chose destruction, shouldn’t I respect that choice?

It sounded like some bullshit but Iron remained silent when he saw the sadness on the fairy’s expression. But the fairy smiled brightly when she saw Iron looking at her like that.

― There’s not much I can answer, but I can tell you this much. The North will be safe for quite some time. Well… That will only be until that day arrives.

“That day?” 

― I can’t tell you the details. But I believe I need to make a choice by then. Whether to sign a contract with the void or…

World Tree pursed her lips as she talked. She couldn’t help but frown when she realized that she couldn’t say anything anymore. 

― If you want to know more, then come find me. This guy next to me wants to see you too…

At the end of her words, the fairy turned into a flash of green light that gradually faded and disappeared.

***

TL’s corner!

When Crimson called out “The Ghosts…” I felt that. ╥﹏╥

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